Texas A&M finds itself in transition game

Auburn put the squeeze on Texas A&M and guard TJ Starks in a win on Wednesday then called the Aggies out for not playing hard enough.

Photo: Michael Wyke, FRE / Associated Press

COLLEGE STATION — Things got so bad for Texas A&M against No. 14 Auburn on Wednesday night Aggies coach Billy Kennedy took a jab at the blindsided global ambassadors of basketball.

“We thought at times we were the Harlem Globetrotters trying to dribble, instead of making hard cuts and guys getting open and passing the ball,” Kennedy said. “We got sloppy.”

No, it wasn’t a diversionary tactic to draw attention away from his sagging Aggies following their 85-66 loss to the Tigers, Kennedy was simply pointing out A&M’s players weren’t taking their duties seriously in losing their third SEC game in four tries.

The Globetrotters at least could counter they’re entertaining — the Aggies were nothing but a drag over two halves in a two-thirds full Reed Arena on Wednesday.

“You have a ranked opponent coming into your arena,” Auburn guard Bryce Brown said afterward, adding insult to incineration. “(They) probably could have played a little harder.”

If the unusual act of being called out by an opposing peer doesn’t fire up the Aggies, nothing will. A&M (7-8, 1-3 SEC) has a chance to get back on track on its home floor at 2:30 p.m. Saturday against fellow woebegone Missouri (9-6, 0-3), and the Aggies desperately need a win if they’re to have any hope of making the NCAA tournament for a third time in four seasons under Kennedy.

“You (try and) let it go because of how bad it was, but you also take away the things you did well,” A&M forward Savion Flagg said of the 19-point loss to Auburn. “With the bad things, you know what you need to improve on next game.”

In this case that’s just about everything for the Aggies, but here’s something else: What if they’ve maxed out their abilities? Frankly, this isn’t the team Kennedy envisioned four years ago when he signed one of the nation’s top classes.

Of that fearsome foursome that was billed to propel the Aggies to their first Final Four, only guard Admon Gilder remains. And the senior leader is sidelined this season with a blood clot in his arm — an apparent sad ending to a solid college career, and one completely out of Kennedy’s hands.

Among the other three in a class ESPN ranked fourth nationally, forward Elijah Thomas transferred to Clemson one semester into his freshman year. Center Tyler Davis and forward D.J. Hogg both turned pro at the end of last season, a couple of ill-advised decisions considering neither was selected in the NBA Draft.

Meantime the most talented player on last year’s squad that made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament, forward Robert Williams from the class of 2016, was a first-round pick of the Boston Celtics. It all adds up to a rebuilding season for the Aggies, harshly evident by what Kennedy said of Auburn punishing his team for 40 minutes on its home floor.

“Some of it is inexperience,” he said, “and some of it is ability.”

Admitting coach Bruce Pearl’s squad has more ability than his Aggies is a jagged pill to swallow for both Kennedy and A&M fans but again, this isn’t exactly the roster any of them envisioned a year or two ago.

A&M basketball, which has never advanced past the Sweet 16, is historically one of the nation’s most underachieving programs considering school size and conference affiliation and in the past decade, money sunk into the program by deep-pocketed boosters tired of ordinariness or worse.

The angrier fans this season don’t care to recognize it, but Kennedy owns two of the program’s four Sweet 16 showings since 1980, and those two have come in two of the last three seasons. Still, with higher ticket prices, an upgraded arena, a brand new locker room A&M claims is as good as any in the country, and a still-shiny basketball complex adjoining Reed Arena, people are expecting more.

Kennedy knows that. His new gaggle of Aggies — five of the nine players in this season’s league opener experienced SEC play for the first time — are beginning to figure it out. Their lone conference victory came on the road at Alabama a week ago, on a last-second 3-pointer by TJ Starks.

The same Alabama that had just toppled perennial power Kentucky on that same court. Does it all matter? Prior to the season A&M athletic director Scott Woodward said he was “very pleased” with Kennedy’s results since Woodward’s arrival three years ago this month.

“Without having a lot of great basketball teams here in the past,” Woodward reminded.

Indeed. And whether Kennedy can get the Aggies to truly great for the first time in program history is the biggest question to be answered moving forward.

Brent Zwerneman is a staff writer for the Houston Chronicle covering Texas A&M athletics. He is a graduate of Oak Ridge High School and Sam Houston State University, where he played baseball.

Brent is the author of four published books about Texas A&M, three related to A&M athletics. He’s a four-time winner of APSE National Top 10 writing awards for the San Antonio Express-News, including a second-place finish for breaking the Dennis Franchione “secret newsletter” scandal in 2007.

His coverage of Texas A&M’s move to the SEC from the Big 12 also netted a third-place finish nationally in 2012. Brent met his wife, KBTX-TV news anchor Crystal Galny, in the Dixie Chicken before an A&M-Texas Tech football game in 2002, and the couple has three children: Will, Zoe and Brady.